Courses 2013 - 2014

LAW B 585 Natural Resources Law

Credits: 1-4, Variable

This course is a survey course on Natural Resources as it is generally taught in U.S. law schools. The casebook is Klein, Cheever, & Birdsong, Natural Resources Law: A Place-Based Book of Problems and Cases (2009 Aspen Publishers). Topics covered included Wildlife and Biodiversity, Rangelands, Protected Lands, and Wetlands. In particular, the course compares various approaches to federal resource management, including the cross boundary regulation of endangered species and wetlands, the multiple-use mandates of Bureau of Land Management lands, and the notion that nature can be preserved by setting it aside in wilderness areas and national parks. The course also addresses state responsibilities for natural resources management (focusing on the public trust doctrine) and issues raised by regulation of natural resources on private lands (focusing on constitutional takings doctrine).